At first, I wanted to write a post about my 2020’s resolutions, since writing more is one them. Then I decided to write a few lines about Richard Feynman, the brilliant physicist, because I am always in awe with the simplicity and truthfulness of his words – I follow an account about him on Twitter and so I always get updates.
During his lifetime (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988), Feynman became one of the best-known scientists in the world. In a 1999 poll of 130 leading physicists worldwide by the British journal Physics World, he was ranked as one of the ten greatest physicists of all time.
He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II and long with his work in theoretical physics, Feynman has been credited with pioneering the field of quantum computing and introducing the concept of nanotechnology.
His two semi-autobiographical books Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? have been on my reading wish list for a long time – hopefully, this year I will read at least one of them.
Here are some quotes from him that I like:
“Don’t get frightened by not knowing things. I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything. There are many things I don’t know anything about. It doesn’t frighten me.”
from the Richard Feynman Twitter account
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”
“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.” – Richard Feynman
“If you want to master something, teach it!”
“Study hard what interests you the most, in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.”
“All the time you’re saying to yourself ‘I could do that, but I won’t’–which is just another way of saying ‘I can’t.'”
And the list could go on forever! What do you think?
If you are interested in other Icons I wrote about, click here.
